How to Loose Weight
Trip Start
Feb 08, 2008
1
30
120
Trip End
Sep 11, 2009
Gaziantep,
Gaziantep,
Turkey
Saturday, April 12, 2008
How to Loose Weight
It's Sunday, late morning. I'm trying to write up the past two days before checking out of the hotel in Gaziantep and taking a bus on east to Şanlıurfa, or Urfa as it is commonly called.
The day before yesterday I took a mini-bus from Hatay (Antakya/Antioch) to Gaziantep. Earlier in the morning I got up before my couchsurfing host, Koray, and was at my morning computer work. As Koray was leaving for work he invited me to have a tea with him at around 10, before I moved on.
This I did. His apartment is about 5 blocks from the university where he works, and around there are some of the usual student-type hangouts. To an empty quiet one we went for tea. then a Turkish coffee, and conversation. Before I realized it, it was noon. So I suggested that I'd best be on my way.
I had expected to take a dolmuş to the otogar where I would buy a bus ticket from the guy who assisted me with a lift into the city. But Koray suggested the mini-bus, which would go the "back way," on the east side of the mountains that rim the coast. The mini-bus stop was, furthermore, just about across the street. And we had only about a 5 minute wait for one to come. I told Koray it was the Turkish Travel Pixies working again.
For the first short while I had a nice comfortable window seat. But then two teen aged girls got on and I was directed to take a seat in the rear row. There is a driver and a sort of bus guy who takes the money and provides passenger management--like luggage handling, and directing a shifting passenger alignment. At first he was really a sour-puss, even seeming resentful when I paid. And not only to me, thankfully. (However, toward the end of the trip he was quite the smiling and friendly chap).
The scenery was most interesting. The mountain range rose on the left, and on the right a large fertile plain, which falls away to the east and Allepo, Syria. I wondered why any of the ancient peoples would migrate from there. It seemed large enough to support a quite large population. And the ancient peoples knew irrigation. So I don't know. And as usual, there is no one to whom to direct my questions.
After about 3/4 of the way I was most uncomfortable. The rear seats are elevated for luggage beneath. My feet were elevated such that all my weight was on my two-spot, and they were hurting. So, at a passenger discharge I raised up and tried to relieve myself by stretching the best I could. Of course this raised all kind of attention. Heads turned. A foreigner has to well get used to people looking at one. Forty years ago I was most uncomfortable with it, an even got angered. Now I either ignore it or try to smile and even laugh at it.Whether it was my display or not, it seemed odd to me that after going more than 3/4 of the way to Gaziantep the bus driver pulled over for a tea stop. This afforded an opportunity to get out and stretch. When I got back in I noticed that unbeknownst to me my particular seat was broken, and the seat cushion was collapsed. My buns had been in a kind of pit.
As we passed through Gaziantep at one point I saw a sign pointing to the city center as being in the opposite direction we were traveling. So I said something about city center--and was laughed off. So I laughed to, thinking, finally, these people take care of you.
Finally we pulled up in the street outside outlaying otogar. The mini-bus driver called out to a dolmuş driver across the street. Then he sent me over there.
Previously I had glanced at the Lonely Planet sketchmap of Gaziantep, so when I sensed that we had passed the city center (and we had), I got off an walked back; sat in the square and cooled off. Also, let the curious attention of by-sitters drift away. Being a westerner I get stared at enough as it is. I don't like to add to my being an object of public attention. So often I will just sit someplace and await the attention to wear off before adding to my spectacle by obviously looking through a guide book. When I felt attention had worn off, I looked again at the map, and saw the hotel of my choice was but a block away.
It was full. But a guy from the hotel next door, whom I had refused, shagged me back, where there was a room free. He indicated that the two hotels were family--rubbing his two fore fingers together--the same gesture the pest on a previous bus used when soliciting a view of my wallet.
Later in the evening, when surfing tv channels for the BBC or CNN, or football, really, I came across--for my second time in a Turkish hotel--a channel of 24/7 hardcore pornography. The one years ago in Kars was French; this was the Hustler Network. (The next day I changed rooms so as to get away from the street noises. There was no porn on that room's available channels. Not that I was looking for it . . . .)
Well, I have not much to say about Gaziantep. It's a bigger place than I had expected, and much more modernistically urbanized than I had imagined--without having done any prior research or reading. A solicited couchsurfing host had in a first message asked when I was arriving, and had included his phone number. A second message said he was not able to host until after the 5th, tomorrow. I'm paranoid and insecure enough to think that he was just reneging and not really wanting an "old guy" around. An uncharitable thought, I know, but I do have a nasty cynical streak. To say nothing of personal insecurities.
My first morning I went for the Tourist Information Office. I found the building. It was locked, and through the door window saw that the shelves behind the Information Desk were bare. There was no sign about anything.
Nevertheless, the Gaziantep Archaeological Museum was the next close-by objective. Its fame these days rests almost solely on the collection of Roman era floor mosaics that have been rescued at a place named Zeugma, now flooded behind the waters of a dam. I could go on about that, but I'm trying, now at 11am to finish this and get on the road. If you have an interest, you can Google Zeugma and get all the info you may want. There is one local hotel that has links to much such regional information and pictures: http://www.anadoluevleri.com. (I didn't stay there. Its quite beyond my means. But they have a lot of web-based information on the Gaziantep region).
During the mid-day museum closure I walked over to the Kale (castle) and climbed up into it for a look around. Then back to the museum to finish up. I'll just say that the mosaics ARE most worthy of attention, quite amazing.
Now, I've got to check out, get to the otogar, and move along to Şanlıurfa, or Urfa.
Oh, about that weight loss. On the day of travel from Hatay to Gaziantep, I didn't eat anything all day until around 7 o'clock in the evening.
